But can we look at the facts? Twenty-four free schools have opened up this year. There are over twenty THOUSAND schools in Britain. Twenty-four versus twenty thousand: is this really a revolution?

What is a free school anyway? It is simply an academy. Really, that’s all it is. The opposition are up in arms about the ‘new’ freedoms a free school will have – the possibility of setting pay and conditions, running an extended day, changing the year’s terms and so on – yet academies have had these exact freedoms for years.

Can we please remember that academies were set up under the Labour government? In fact, Blairites are in entire agreement with free schools because, well, they are just an extension of a Labour policy. The only difference between a free school and an academy is that free schools are set up by individuals in the community.

That is an important difference, of course. The beauty of the free school movement is that it gives ordinary people, whether parents or teachers, the opportunity to take both personal and collective responsibility for their children and their communities, and change things for the better. While one might argue that the state is necessary for any community to work efficiently, the state should not encourage people to stop thinking for themselves.

Free schools are the perfect embodiment of state and people working together, taking responsibility and building something of use for the community. A free school is, after all, a state school. It is funded by the state, and it takes in anyone who wants to attend – not just the brightest, or the richest.

Free schools are one way in which the state can be used to encourage people to take responsibility for their communities, something that, as a society, in the wake of the riots, we are beginning to realise is absolutely crucial. Saying 'It isn't my problem, the state will sort that out' is not good. Free schools, if for no other reason, are precisely what we need, as they help people to take responsibility for themselves, and they could not have come at a better time.